Bubba Watson confirmed that he still owns the General Lee and said that he’d like to donate the car to a museum.
Following the final round of the Charles Schwab Challenge on Sunday, after answering the requisite questions about his game and about playing a PGA Tour event without fans present, Watson was asked about one of the most famous cars in television history.
The one that had the Confederate flag on the roof, which has since been painted over.
“So yes, I have the General Lee, and I’ve been searching. … we’d love to give it to a museum because we believe that it’s TV history,” Watson said of a car for which he paid $112,000. “It’s nothing against race on that show. I didn’t buy the car based on race. I bought it based on my family, me and my dad, me and my mom watching that show, but obviously there’s no flags around that car. The flags have been removed from that car.”
All men ARE created equal, I believe that so I will be painting the American flag over the roof of the General Lee #USA
— bubba watson (@bubbawatson) July 2, 2015
Watson had the confederate flags removed in 2015.
He got the car at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale in 2012 and then several days later, drove it to the Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale, where the past-champions section of the clubhouse parking lot had a special spot for the vehicle. (Watson, however, is not a past champion of the event.)
The General Lee was the star of the popular TV show “The Dukes of Hazzard,” which ran from 1979 to 1985. The car is a 1969 Dodge Charger and more than 300 of the General Lee cars were used in the production of the show. Most were reportedly destroyed in chase and crash scenes, according to the auction house, Profiles in History.
The General Lee that Watson owns is dubbed Lee 1. It’s the car that jumps a police cruiser in the opening credits. The auction house reports that there are only three General Lees still in existence.
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